Bezgovica - Cerk

Access to starting point:
A) First, we drive to Ribnica, and then we continue driving towards Kočevje. After Dolenja vas we continue right in the direction of Grčarice, Gotenica and Kočevska Reka. In Kočevska Reka we continue right in the direction of Borovca pri Kočevski Reki, mountain pass Strma Reber and Osilnice. In Borovec we once again continue right, and then past hamlet Ravne in few kilometers we get to mountain pass Strma Reber, which is situated at an altitude 993 meters. After the mountain pass the road starts descending, and after 19 zig-zags brings us to the settlement Zgornji Čačič, and few 100 meters ahead also to the turn-off of the road in the village Bezgovica. We park on an appropriate place by the crossroad.
B) From Kočevje we drive towards the border crossing Petrina, and then at the end of the settlement Štalcerji we continue right towards Kočevska Reka. In Kočevska Reka we continue left in the direction of Borovec pri Kočevski Reki, mountain pass Strma Reber and Osilnice. In Borovec we continue right, and then past hamlet Ravne in few kilometers we get to mountain pass Strma Reber, which is situated at an altitude 993 meters. After the mountain pass the road starts descending, and after 19 zig-zags brings us to the settlement Zgornji Čačič, and few 100 meters ahead also to the turn-off of the road in the village Bezgovica. We park on an appropriate place by the crossroad.
C) From Osilnica or Sela pri Osilnici we continue in the direction settlements Žurge, Padovo pri Osilnici, Zgornji Čačič and mountain pass Strma Reber. Before we get to 1st or 19th zig zag road which leads towards the settlement Bezgovica branches off to the left. We park on an appropriate place by the crossroad.

Path description:
From the starting point, we continue in the direction of village Bezgovica, which we quickly reach. When we reach the mentioned village, at the smaller crossroad we continue slightly right, and then with nice views on Sveta Gora and Gorski Kotar we get to the upper part of the village, where among houses we follow the blazes. Behind the last house, we notice hiking signposts, which point us uphill, on the path which passes into the forest, through which it gradually starts ascending steeper. After a short ascent from the right joins also the path from 18th hairpin turn of road on Strma Reber, and we continue straight on more steep path, which higher in a diagonal ascent brings us to steep small valley, through which we continue the ascent. Higher blazes from rough small valley lead left on the path which passes to the edge of occasionally precipitous ridge. We continue the ascent on occasionally a little more overgrown path, which avoids precipices a little to the right, and occasionally some view opens up on surrounding hills. Few minutes higher we reach a wide cart track which we follow to the left, we walk there to the spot, where it splits into two parts.
We continue on a slightly left cart track (right cart track bypasses Bezgarska planina and leads towards the mountain pass Strma Reber), which quickly leads out of the forest on the bottom part of the mountain pasture Bezgarska planina. When we reach the mountain pasture through a meadow in a minute or two, we walk to bigger hunting observatory.
From the hunting observatory, where there is a marked crossing, we continue right in the direction of Cerk and Firstov rep (straight Taborska stena, Dragarji...), on the path which descends to a smaller garden in the middle of the mountain pasture. When the path passes into the forest, on crossing of cart tracks we continue straight (here from the right joins the cart track which a little before the mountain pasture from the marked path branches off straight and is about a minute shorter as marked path). Next follows few minutes of ascent through the forest and then we reach the main road Osilnica - Kočevska Reka, which we carefully cross.
On the other side of the road, we continue in the direction of Cerk and Firstov rep and we continue on the forest road. The path ahead leads us on the forest road, from which already after few minutes marked path branches off to the right.
We continue on a marked path (possible is also to continue on an unmarked road, because marked path after a time returns on the mentioned road, the path on the road is also a little shorter), which passes into a dense forest. Through the forest at first we start moderately ascending, and in doing so, we carefully follow the blazes, because the path is otherwise relatively easy to follow but poorly beaten. When the path a little higher flattens, on the left side we bypass indistinct peak Luknja (1079 meters), to which we can on easier pathless terrain ascend in few minutes, otherwise we continue on a marked path, which as said peak bypasses on the left side. Next follows few shorter ascents and descents, after that follows a little longer descent, which ends when we reach the macadam road.
When we reach the road, we continue left (right Firstov rep and Loška stena), and after a minute or two of additional walking, we get to a crossroad by NOB monument, where from the left joins the road which we left earlier.
We continue right, past memorial and we continue on a macadam road. Higher, at the smaller crossroad we continue left, and after few minutes we get to a marked crossing, where joins also a marked path from the hunting cottage on Ravne.
Signs for Cerk point us to the right on a cart track. Well marked, but occasionally quite overgrown cart track we follow all the way to a smaller plain below the summit of Cerk. Here we continue slightly left and then a little more steep path we follow all the way to the top of Cerk.
Bezgovica - Bezgarska planina 1:00, Bezgarska planina - Cerk 1:55.

On the way: Bezgovica (565m), Bezgarska planina (895m)